U.S. children's poet laureate for 2011-2013, J. PATRICK LEWIS is the author ofmore than fifty books of poetry for children, which find their shape in both free andformal verse and engage a wide range of subjects from history to mathematics,Russian folklore to the animal kingdom. His books for children includeNew YorkTimesBest Illustrated BookThe Last Resort(2002, illustrated by RobertoInnocenti and translated into more than a dozen languages) andThe Shoe Tree ofChagrin(2001, illustrated by Chris Sheban), which won the Society of Children'sBook Writers & Illustrators' Golden Kite Award. His children's poetry has beenwidely anthologized, and his contributions to children's literature have beenrecognized with the 2011 Poetry Award from the National Council of Teachers ofEnglish and the Ohioana Awards' 2004 Alice Louise Wood Memorial Prize.